Rangers' Ally McCoist given suspended ban for SFA panel comments

Ally McCoist, the manager of Rangers, looks animated on the touchline at Berwick Rangers in the Scottish Third Division. Photograph: Ian Macnicol/Getty Images

Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, has been given a suspended three-match touchline ban for comments he made about the Scottish Football Association's judicial panel.

McCoist was found guilty of two of three charges by an SFA fast track tribunal but his punishment is suspended for 12 months.

The club's chief executive, Charles Green, escaped with a censure for comments he made in the media claiming "bigotry" was one of the reasons his newco club were denied entry to the SPL.

McCoist was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and not acting in the best interests of football for questioning the independence of the panel that handed Rangers a 12-month transfer embargo in April, before they were consigned to liquidation.

A third charge relating to his demands that the three-man panel's identities were made public was dismissed.

Rangers were censured for Green's comments, made before his newco club made their first appearance on the pitch, in a Ramsdens Cup tie at Brechin City last month, since being denied entry to the SPL and voted into the Third Division.